


Drifting Along

by Ladysarah



Series: Live Fast, Die Young [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Banter, Drifting, F/M, I suck at tagging, Snark, foreign cities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-12
Updated: 2013-11-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 06:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1041652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladysarah/pseuds/Ladysarah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You comin' with me or am I going to be a lonely American girl walking the streets of a level orange Mid-East city all by my lonesome?”</p><p>Darcy and Steve are getting to know each other slowly, but friends they are not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifting Along

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was turning evil and now I set it free on your poor souls...*cough* I mean, enjoy reading. Please leave a review if you feel so inclined. They feed my idiotic and directionally challenged Muse. I think I am going to call her Linda...
> 
> This fic was largely inspired by the beautiful driving in the Bad Girls music video by M.I.A. Worth checking out, in my opinion. 
> 
> Major props and hugs to my brain twin, Sarah, for being super wonderful and supportive on this, betaing and reading and talking things out. And to Meri for talking me off the ledge and putting some sense into me.

The first time that Darcy saw them, she knew she was addicted. She had never been a car person-she preferred computers and coffeemakers to greasy engine parts-but what they were doing was poetry in motion.

Drifting.

It looked like they were riding the wind, skirting the pavement and showing it that they were above the laws of gravity. Four wheels or two, they soared. Her conversational Arabic allowed her to quickly become friends with the drivers. Whenever they met at a barren road she was there, taking in the fumes of burning rubber and desert air.

And today was going to be no different.

She had received a text from Adara that they were going to be riding in the afternoon and that her brother Lufti had a surprise for her when she got there. Darcy had hurried to finish any work that needed to be done for the day, taking an extra moment to make sure that Jane had all of their updated data, before she grabbed her _shayla_ and a long sleeve shirt to throw on over her t-shirt and cargos. She was already modest enough for the sensibilities of the population without them, but her porcelain skin had a hard time dealing with the harsh Lebanese sun.

She is buttoning up her shirt and making her way towards the gate to the Consulate when Steve catches up with her, sunglasses and baseball cap in place and flak jacket snug around his broad chest. His skin is almost as gold as his hair. Darcy tries not to be jealous.

“Ms. Lewis. Were you, or were you not, at the briefing this morning?” The irritation in his tone is enough to bring a smile to her face.

“If you call me Ms. Lewis one more time Steve, I swear to God I’ll start calling you Mr. Rogers.” Darcy stops walking and putting on her Shayla and looks up at him. “No, that’s too creepy for my childhood memories to take. I _would_ call you Rogers, but I hear the team call you that all the time so it’s more a term of endearment for you.” She continues walking towards the gate, the crunch of the gravel letting her know that she hasn’t lost him. “But Clint was telling me that they had another name for you. Now what was it? El Capitan?”

Darcy glances back to see Steve raise his eyebrows and she is pretty sure there is an eye roll going on behind his shades. “Ms. Lewi…Darcy. Did you hear what I said in the briefing this morning?”

“Nope. Sorry. Don’t know what you’re talking about.” They reach the gate and she tries to pull it open when his heavy hand lands on it and halts her effort.

“Well, since you missed it, let me tell you again. The State Department has given us notice to up our security warning for the next week, as a precaution. Therefore no civilian leaves the property without an armed escort.”

Darcy shrugs her shoulders. “So?”

“So, you are a civilian and you were getting ready to leave the property… _Without an escort_.”

“Then come with me.” Darcy tries pulling on the gate, again, and is stopped, again.

“I can’t come with you, Darcy. I have things that I have to get done here. As the head of the Consulate’s security team I have more important things to do than entertain and babysit you.”

His voice is stern and serious and Darcy doesn’t particularly believe that he isn’t just trying to keep her inside the gate to annoy her and tries to read him by looking him in the eye. Well, at least she thinks she is looking him in the eye. It’s kind of hard to tell with his glasses on. In fact, Steve Rogers is a hard guy to get a read on in general. He didn’t smile the whole first week she was in the Consulate and it took another two weeks to hear his laugh and even then it was because someone had been telling a rather hilarious story about something that happened in Bangladesh. Five months in the same building in cozy quarters and the most she can get out of him is an eye roll. They are getting to know each other slowly, but friends they are not.

She takes a chance at calling his bluff and grabs his walkie-talkie off of his belt before he can stop her. She presses down on the button that carries her voice to the command post.

“Tony? What does Steve’s schedule look like today?” There is a moment of silence before the security team’s mechanic’s voice crackles through the radio.

“Lewis?”

“Yes, idiot. What does he have going on this afternoon?” Steve raises an eyebrow, hands on his hips in mild indignation.

“Uh, nothing that I can think of. He was complaining about some old reports to send back to Pep in Boston. Why? Got something naughty planned? El Capitan needs a good fu-” Steve snatches the radio and turns it off before Tony can finish, his jaw clenched tight.

Darcy simply stares at him and quirks an eyebrow having caught him in his own lie. “You comin’ with me or am I gonna to be a lonely American girl walking the streets of a level orange Mid-East city all by my lonesome?”

Darcy swears that she can see the pro vs. con list he must be making in his head. Let the annoying brunette go out on her own and be blamed if something happens to her on his watch, or give in to the annoying brunette and tail her to God Knows Where. The moment his shoulders slump she knows she has him and she smiles obnoxiously.

“Fine, but we’re taking the jeep; it’s way too hot to be walking anywhere in this city.”

 

 

On the ride out to the meeting point, she and Steve don’t talk. She has a feeling that despite his earlier protests, he is glad to be off Consulate grounds and taking in new parts of the city, even if they are technically in the boonies and someplace they would normally have no business being.

With all the work that Darcy has to do filtering through Jane’s papers and setting up Erik’s schedule, she still has plenty of time to observe the habits of the security team and other Consulate employees they are bunked with. Tony talks big but always rushes off to his room the moment the sun is up in Boston so that he can talk to Pepper. Clint and Natasha, who everyone wrongly assumes are secretly a couple, spend much of their time sending silent messages through eyebrow flicks and head nods and touches that tell of time looking out for and protecting each other. And Steve Rogers, well, he likes to disappear into the city.

The team runs in six-two shifts; six days on duty, two off. For those two days, Steve leaves at sun up and comes back several hours after dark. He never takes a vehicle and he always comes back with a smile. Every time he comes back someone on the team will ask him where he was and he will reply “Around.” It’s become a running joke. But the smile on his face and the light in his eyes gives away how much he enjoys being out and around the people and the culture. Darcy won’t deny that she has thought about tailing him on his days off. Problem is that she is about as graceful as an elephant and he is a trained security expert. He would catch her before she had made it a block.

When they arrive, Adara finds Darcy almost instantly, barely taking in the large blond man with a gun at her side. They talk, in English because Adara is trying to practice, about who is driving and if anyone has any new tricks to try. When they reach the old cement pipes that were abandoned on the side of the road, the children see her and rush towards her in waves, crying out in welcome. She smiles and pulls out a large bag of Hershey’s Kisses that are somehow still solid in this heat.

“ _Wahid_!” She reminds them as they cram around her, joyfully calling out to her and trying to sneak extra bits of chocolate when they think she isn’t looking. Hudad, a little boy sporting a surprising reddish hair color and a toothy smile, grabs two.

“ _Hudad_? _Wahid_.”  She gives him her mock evil glare and he returns one of the chocolates.

“ _Shurkran Jazilan._ ” He thanks her and runs off.

The crowd around them lessens, only a few of the children poking at Steve to see if he has chocolate hidden away in any of his numerous pockets, and Darcy wanders over to converse with the men sitting on the concrete piping. She looks for Lufti as she greets the people who have become her friends in this new country. She reaches the middle of the line without seeing him and finds a free spot to sit.

She puts her hands on the hot concrete and tries to pull herself up when a pair of large hands stops her and turns her around. Steve has removed his glasses and she has a moment to take in the flecks of amber barely there amongst the blue of his eyes before his golden hands are on her waist and lifting her up.

“Comfortable?” He asks. She can only nod as he lets his hands linger a little as they slide down her frame. He pulls himself up beside her, taking in the mass of people who seem to have gathered alongside the road to watch the tar melt, and she tries to convince herself that the blush that is blooming over her cheeks will blend in with the sunburn that she will, no doubt, have tomorrow.

“ _Hawa Halama_!” A voice calls to her from down the line and she twists to see who has called her. “ _Shabb_?”

Darcy looks at Steve trying to find the word in her small vocabulary that would best describe who he is. “ _Hafiz_.”

The man shrugs his shoulders and lifts his hands in the universal sign of confusion. “ _Bissabab_?”

“ _Axanba’dh ana kalla buddu_.” Her sarcasm crosses the language barrier and she is pretty sure she messed the message up somehow, but they all laugh along with her anyway.

“ _Hob_?” The deep throated H slips out through a smile.

“ _Na’am_!” They all laugh again.

“You know I can speak Arabic, right?” Steve is still taking in their surroundings as he asks.

“Yep.” She pops the ‘P’ for effect.

“Why did you let them think that I’m guarding you because I’m in love with you?” He turns to face her and a small smile graces his lips. It’s the closest she has ever come to getting him to look human.

“How else was I going to tell them why you are guarding me without insulting them? ‘Cause that is what it would do if I told them you’re with me because you don’t think I would be safe alone with them.” She hears the tell-tale sound of car engines revving about half a mile down the road in either direction. “These are my friends, Steve.”

Steve is quiet for a moment. “ _Hawa Halama_. Air Dreamer? Why do they call you that?” He is curious about the connection she has with the locals.

“Because-” The sound of cars peeling down the road breaks off her response and she feels the rush of excitement flow through her veins at the familiar sound. “You’ll see in a moment.”

There is a car at each end of the road, little four door sedans that build in speed with each passing second, playing a dangerous game of chicken the closer they get towards the other. The closer they get the more Darcy can see Steve’s concern grow. When they are no more than ten yards away from each other there is an expert turning of wheels and the two drivers fishtail around each other, forming an elegant circle that smells of burned rubber. The crowd, which had been cheering heartily as the drivers drove closer to each other, erupts in cries of enjoyment.

Darcy is clapping with the rest of them, hooting and hollering as the cars clear the road for the next daredevil. “Because I want to know how to do that. To drive like I am on air.”

As the sun lowers and the hours pass, Steve starts paying more attention to the cars and the tricks, and with each passing car his excitement becomes less reserved. A raised eyebrow here, a clap there. These are little signs of his enjoyment, but Darcy has started cataloguing them for future reference. He starts conversing with the men at his side in fluent Arabic so fast that Darcy can only pick up every other word. They appear to be becoming fast friends.

A white sedan peels off at the end of the road, their starting point farther back than anyone else has gone. “Why is he taking off so far back?” The sudden English startles Darcy.

“They’re going skating.” She can feel the grin growing on her face. It’s her favorite part of Drifting, but something she knows she will never do. She values her body too much to try it.

The two side doors on the car open and Steve tenses beside her. She leans close so that he can hear as she explains.

“The car has to reach about sixty miles per hour in order for this to work. They pull themselves out of the car and let their feet coast on the pavement,” Darcy shows him with her hands, making a walking man of one hand and a road of the other. “And they just…Skate.” She turns to make sure he gets the gist of it and their noses brush. Darcy pulls herself away from him slowly, taking in the shit eating grin on his face and the small shake of his head.

“Sounds dangerous.”

Two men in black thobes exit the car, holding onto the roof and the tops of the doors to leverage themselves over the speeding pavement. Their feet ghost over the road, letting the bottoms of their shoes scratch away as they fly. The spectators stand up on the piping, arms raised and voices crying out, cheering. One of the men waves, encouraging them to scream louder.

The car passes where Steve and Darcy are sitting and she catches Adara walking their way.

“Darcy. Lufti says he is ready to give you present. Come with me.” Darcy hops down off the cement wall and hurries after her.

“Where are you going?” Steve shouts after her.

“I am going to see a man about a present.” She calls back in time to see his new friends pull him into conversation and keep him from following after her.

Lufti is leaning against his car, the only bright blue in the sea of golds and blacks and silvers and whites, and he smiles when she approaches.

“Today, I let you fly.” He opens the passenger door and motions for her to get in. Darcy stares in shock.

“Really?”

“Really.” He rounds the car to open the driver’s side door and sticks his head in, calling to her through the car.

“After I have put the vehicle up on its side, you will take your feet and place them here,” he slaps the passenger side of the center console, near the gear shift, “and here,” he slaps the side of his seat.  “I ask that you don’t kick me. Or else we might die. “

He pulls out of the car and comes back to stand by her. “When you come through the open window, you will sit here.” He taps the side of the window. “When it is time for you to come back into the car, I will tap on your foot three times, then you will come back into the car and we will be on all four wheels again.”

Darcy strokes the door of the car and laughs. “You are seriously going to let me do this?”

Lufti gestures for her to take her seat inside the car.

They have ten minutes while they wait in line for their turn on the road and Lufti spends that time telling her about the changes he has been making to his car. In Arabic. There are a lot of mechanical terms that she doesn’t understand, but she still nods her head and smiles.

A young boy comes running to the side of the car to tell them that they are up and Darcy’s nerves start tearing apart her stomach.

“If you want to back out, now is the time to do it, _Hawa_.”

“No.” She takes a moment to run through where she is supposed to put her feet. Was it two taps? Or three? She shakes her head clear and smiles. “Let’s do this.”

They start driving and as their speed picks up Darcy lets her hand float out the window. Up ahead she can make out a narrow ramp. Lufti steers the car expertly and the wheels under Darcy go up on the ramp, hoisting her side of the car into the air. Lufti quickly turns the steering wheel her way and the next thing she knows, she is holding on to keep from falling to his side of the car.

“Go. Now.”

Darcy places one foot on the console and one foot on his seat, then lifts herself out through the open window. The wind hits her face, open road in front of her, and she smiles. It feels like flying, just like she thought it would. She leans against the frame of the car to steady herself before lifting her hands and spreading them wide.

The wind tugs at her clothes and threads through her fingers and fills her nose. It pushes at her chest and her heart speeds up. It is an adrenalin rush, for sure, but there is something else sweeping through her. A freedom and a weightlessness that she has never felt before. A peace.

They pass by the spectators and she finally hears the sound of cheering over the rush of wind. She turns to give them a wave and feels the wind tugging at her shayla. It grips some loosely wrapped corner and before she can catch it, it unravels and becomes lost to the road, her hair billowing around her face and flowing in the rush. A laugh bubbles up her throat and out into the wind. She spreads her arms one more time and lets the feeling of the ride flow over her.

She feels a tap-tap-tap on her foot and is most of the way back through the window when she hears a pop and the car jerks and falls. The landing is hard but she is now inside the car, laughing, working herself into a normal seated position and trying not to kick Lufti. When the car is firmly stopped, he exits the car and circles it to take in any damage as she opens the door, energy rushing through her veins.

Once she is standing she sees Adara and Steve jogging towards them. Just the sight sends her running towards them and she finds herself jumping into Steve’s arms, legs wrapping around his waist and arms around his neck. She doesn’t know why she does it, but she also doesn’t give herself time to care. A chill runs up her spine as his hands wrap around her back, holding her to him, crushing her against his flak jacket. Darcy wonders for a moment how it would feel to be wrapped around him like this without the layer of metal and fabric between them.

“So I take it you weren’t hurt?” It’s more of a statement than a question, but the feel of his breath on her ear and neck reminds her where she is. She lowers her legs and he sets her back on the ground, her arms raised into the air and as she laughs.

“That was the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life.” Darcy has to keep herself from screaming it. His glasses are back on, but she can still see his smile. Quirked up at one end and riddled with amusement. He looks like he is getting ready to say something when Adara comes running up to them, lost _shayla_ in hand and smile covering her face.

“That was amazing Darcy. You looked like you were mistress of the wind.” Darcy can’t help but laugh again. There is a giddiness that she can’t seem to shake. She feels more alive than she thinks she ever has.

The sun has finally set, leaving purple and taupe skies behind in its wake, stars starting to break through the dark blue rising in the east, and Steve checks his watch. Ever on the job.

“We should be heading back to the Consulate.” Darcy takes her time saying her good-byes to Adara and Lufti, thanking him for the ride. On the way back to the jeep, she spots Hudad and calls out to him, throwing him another chocolate and the boy grins, deftly catching it in his palm. Nothing can seem to bring her down from her high.

The road back into the city is dark, illuminating the stars that are out and blacked out sky where the hills rise up. Every so often she steals a glance at Steve. He's had a small smile on his face since they left, and it feels odd. Not bad odd, just…Different.

“Thank you for coming with me today. I know that you had other things to do.” There is sarcasm in the comment, but mostly she means it. His smile widens.

“It was fun. I’m happy I came to see it.” He stares ahead before giving her a quick look. “How’d you find them?”

Darcy hums at the memory, wrapping her arms around herself as the cool desert air wafts in through the open window. “I was running an errand for Jane about month after we arrived, picking up things that she had forgotten to bring with her despite my incredible checklist, and there was this group of women talking about stunts and what tricks they wanted to try next. I asked them if I could listen to their conversation to try to improve my Arabic. Adara was in the group and invited me along. The next day I found my way out to where they were driving. The moment I saw them, I just…I couldn’t look away.”

She pulls a hair band from around her wrist and pulls her hair back. “I have never been adventurous. What I did today? That was new. I don’t take chances and I don’t do things that could cause me bodily harm. I have never had a broken bone or a sprained ankle. Nothing.” Steve lightly scoffs.

“You’re in the Middle East. I would say that in today’s political and religious climate, it could do you harm.”

Darcy lets out a small sigh. “I flipped a coin.”

“Come again?” He shoots her a look of confusion, hands still steady on the wheel.

“My life was boring. I had just graduated with a boring degree and I needed something different. Heads was go on a backpacking trip through Europe, doing odd jobs to pay my way around and buy my plane ticket back, tails was apply for the job with Jane and fly around the world with her. So here I am.”

They are silent for several moments as Steve pilots the jeep through the outskirts of the city, the few streetlights they see flushing out any hope of seeing the stars.

“I liked seeing you smile today. I don’t get to see you smile that much and I thought you might hate me.” Darcy clamps her mouth shut. She shouldn’t have said that. Can she blame the adrenalin still flowing in her veins?

“I’m that bad, huh?” She tries to explain herself, say that it isn’t true, but he cuts in. “No, I know that I haven’t been very friendly since you got here. I just…” He looks out his window and seems to be gathering the right words.

“I used to be married.” The words echo through the jeep, bouncing off of the ceiling and windows and finally settle somewhere in her brain. She hadn’t been expecting that. She’s also slightly confused as to what that has to do with her.

“Peggy. She was visiting me in Gaza during a contract there three years ago and she was hit by shrapnel from a car bomb.” He falls silent and Darcy wishes that there was something that she could do or say to make things better, maybe take back her confession somehow. Before she can try, he starts speaking again. “I’ve made my peace with it, in my own way, but every time a new crew comes in with a woman who doesn’t have gray hair and wrinkles Tony tries pushing me towards her, trying to get me to date again. He was making a big deal about you when you arrived and he started pushing harder than usual and…My anger with him spilled over onto you. By the time he let up and I realized what I was doing I thought it was too late to fix things. You always seemed to be walking away from me.”

Darcy rubs her hands along her pants, more for something to do than to actually wipe anything away. They reach the Consulate and Steve steers the Jeep expertly into the garage. He puts the vehicle in park, turns off the engine, and turns to face her.

“I’m sorry for being a dick to you, Darcy Lewis. Please, forgive me?” He gives her a tentative smile, clearly not sure how she will react.

“I get it.” Darcy gives him a grin in return. “All is forgiven as long as I get to see you smile more.”

His smile grows wider and, in some way, more true. He jumps out of the Jeep and rounds it quickly before she can open her own door and opens it for her. He walks her back to the building where they bunk and leaves her at her room with a smile and a low goodnight as he brushes a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The small touch sends her heart soaring and her skin prickling as he walks away.

She tries to sleep that night, but the adrenalin still flowing in her veins and the smile on his face leaves her tossing in her bed and wide awake when the sun rises.


End file.
